The European Parliament has approved a ban on single-use plastics by 2021. Currently there is a growing concern about the environmental and health issues caused by plastic and micro (nano) plastics wastes. This ban approved by the European Parliament means a scientific and economical challenge for both plastic industry and society in general, so I would like to discuss some points about it with the RG community.
Which could be the best replacement materials / products or perspective to adopt on the single-use plastics issue, which nowadays are everywhere in the daily life? Are we scientifically / technically prepared for these changes? I also would like to know if there are new proposals to deal with this challenges, and of course, deal with the existing contamination of plastics and micro (nano) plastics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/world/europe/european-parliament-plastic-ban.html
Dear German Araujo,
Before start the discussion, I would like direct two questions to the scientific community.
If plastic has not been introduced to the earth, what would be the environment?
What are the packing materials which were available in the earth before the plastic era (before 1900)?
If we search about this, glass containers, degradable packing material (like paper), natural packing material (like large leaves and plant produce) etc. were the packing material at that time. So, we have to start at the point, and we can apply present technology to improve/develop those produces as alternative to the
Single-Use Plastics. There are two-three years to develop new product, and present ban may also help to encourage/direct the manufactures to the new goal.
Piyal Aravinna
Thanks for your answer, A. G. Piyal Aravinna, you have got two very interesting points on the topic. I hope more researchers could join the discussion.
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